Ripple: Getting Started Guide

By now, you may have already heard of Ripple, the new decentralized cryptocurrency project that has been making waves (pun intended) in the Bitcoin community. While Bitcoin allows anyone to hold, send and receive bitcoins over a decentralized network to and from anywhere in the world with extremely low fees, Ripple seeks to allow anyone to do the same thing with any other currency as well.

In order to get started with Ripple, you will first need to open a Ripple wallet. Just like Bitcoin in 2009, there is currently only one Ripple client available, the official one at ripple.com, although it is much more powerful and much easier to use than BitcoinQt – the client is a web interface, no software downloads required. The process is as simple as creating an account at any other website; simply click “Start ripple” followed by “Create an account” and go from there.

Once you have an account, the next step is to activate it. Unlike in Bitcoin, you cannot simply create as many Ripple accounts as you want simply by generating new private keys; you also need to make an initial deposit of 50 XRP, Ripple’s internal currency, in order for the account to become usable. At this point, there are two ways to get this initial deposit. First, OpenCoin sometimes makes free XRP giveaways, handing out generous quantities of XRP to as many people as it can reach. For now, the company is targeting the Bitcoin community, and so its first major giveaway required users to post in a forum thread on [Bitcointalk](http://bitcointalk.org), a popular Bitcoin forum. Later on, giveaways based on Facebook accounts and cell phone numbers are both likely to take place. If you are not lucky enough to spot a giveaway, or too impatient to wait for one, you can find someone else to buy XRP from. The largest Ripple communities right now are at https://ripple.com/forum/ and http://reddit.com/r/ripplers; if you have BTC to trade, you can easily find someone to give XRP in exchange. If you want to buy more XRP later there is also a “decentralized exchange” inside of Ripple that allows you to exchange any other currency within the Ripple system for XRP, but it requires you to already have 50 XRP in your account to use.

The process for sending and receiving in Ripple is the same as with Bitcoin; in the “Receive” tab of the Ripple wallet, the interface provides you with a Ripple address, which looks exactly like a Bitcoin address with the exception of starting with an “r” instead of a “1”. To send a payment to someone, you simply enter their address, the currency and the amount you wish to send in the “Send” tab. The process can be used to send any currency that you have in your Ripple account, although if you and the recipient are not linked through a chain of trust the only currency that you will be able to convert is XRP.

Once your account is loaded with at least 50 XRP, you will likely want to get some money in other currencies (eg. BTC or USD) into your account. In order to do this, you will need to open an account at a gateway. There are two options for gateways so far: WeExchange and BitStamp. The process with WeExchange works as follows. First, sign up and create a WeExchange account. Login to WeExchange and go to Funds -> Add Funds -> BTC to get a Bitcoin address that you can deposit your bitcoin to (fiat currencies can be deposited too but, as usual, Bitcoin is by far the easiest). Once WeExchange confirms your deposit, go to Funds -> Withdraw Funds -> Ripple. At the bottom of the page, you will see a list of addresses you can trust. Open your Ripple wallet and go to the “Advanced” tab. Click “Trust”, and add the BTC address to your trust list, entering a trust amount at least as large as what you are depositing. This creates a credit line between you and WeExchange that allows WeExchange to send you BTC – or, more precisely, an IOU for BTC, through the Ripple network. Then go to the “Receive” tab and copy your Ripple address. Back in WeExchange, select “BTC” as the withdraw currency, enter the deposit amount and paste in your Ripple address. And, there you go, you have BTC in your Ripple account.

In order to convert the BTC into another currency, once again in Ripple go to the “Advanced” tab and click “Trade”. At the top of the trade interface, select the “BTC/XRP” option if it is not selected already, and click on “change issuer”. Copy in the same Ripple address that you entered into your trust list to set WeExchange as the currency issuer for BTC. Then, through the trade interface, sell your BTC for the other currency just like you would trade BTC for fiat currency at an exchange like MtGox or BitStamp. Unless you decided to make an offer above the current “bid” price in an attempt to secure for yourself a better deal, the trade should process quickly and, voila, you have the currency of your choice.

As for where you can spend your Ripple funds, so far there is only one merchant accepting Ripple for payment: Private Internet Access. Private Internet Access currently only takes XRP – no Ripple USD or BTC transfers yet, and the XRP payment option is, for now, fairly expensive compared to the USD or BTC price of $39.95 per year since XRP does not yet have a clear market price. Note that when Private Internet Access provides the address for you to send the XRP, the address that it gives includes a numerical token at the end – something like r9EUYx41zx3audeARUwpkDF7VuwcmbwYTU?dt=2399767994. Make sure to include the full address, with the token, when making your payment – the token is included in the Ripple transaction, and tells Private Internet Access which order the payment is for.

Hopefully, soon more merchants will start accepting Ripple for payment, and even before that happens there is always the option of buying goods or labor over-the-counter on https://ripple.com/forum/ or http://reddit.com/r/ripplers. For now, good luck exploring the latest and greatest that cryptocurrency has to offer!

Vitalik Buterin is a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine who has been involved in the Bitcoin community since 2011, and has contributed to Bitcoin both as a writer and the developer of a fork of bitcoinjs-lib, pybitcointools and multisig.info, as well as one of the developers behind Egora. Now, Vitalik's primary job is as the main developer of Ethereum, a project which intends to create a next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform that allows people to create any kind of decentralized application on top of a blockchain that can be imagined.

I consider myself pretty smart, but I can’t wrap my head around Ripple. I understand Bitcoin very well though. The Ripple wiki has plenty of weasel-phrases. I don’t understand anything. These instructions are complicated to follow. I don’t know what to make of it.

not a fan

and i thought using btc was complicated this cripple takes the cake.

zguy

If anyone wants to donate some XRP to help me hit the 300, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Guest

Sent

Julia May

Sent, zguy…and you’re welcome.

If anyone else wants to share the wealth and throw a hundred or two my way, please send to
rUuBXGGxHUDDtU3dripL7zwEmcUWfh8R33

zguy

rUeAgU8zTPW5ibRKoQ4AKUt8SqkpV46DXC

Ripple deposit

Fungal.Overlord

This whole movement, while noble, has entirely been over-complicated and intentionally littered with tech-speak so as to dissuade the layman from partaking in any interactions with this system. The Bitcoin and Ripple systems are bordering on impossible for anyone without an IT degree to even get involved in, regardless of how gooey the GUI claims to be. The driving factor behind keeping this system so clandestine and secretive is, at its core, a form of elitism. This elitism will end up being its own undoing. If Joe Blow in Indiana cannot use a BitCoin wallet, then the whole thing is either doomed to failure or to become the pass-time “toy” of MIT grads and systems analysts. My recommendation to the folks that are at the center of this “movement” is simple. If you want this to take hold, truly take effect on a global level AND to achieve some any sort of credibility, you MUST make it usable by anyone. The reason that paper money and coinage has worked for THOUSANDS of years is because, regardless of social class, any jackass on the street can pull a bill or a coin out of his wallet and pay for what he needs to buy. Make BitCoin and Ripple simpler to use and it WILL catch on. Otherwise it will continue to be just a joke around the watercooler of the world or, at worst, a tool for blackhats like Pirateat40 to con people out of “money.”

misterkel

Yes.

poriks

I believe Ripple will be huge in the comming years. But I missed the free XRP at bitcointalk.org due to account age. Any kind enough to get me started?

Here is my wallet: rBCj5PUmuYyDzgjoVcEvHZE7vTC7x9b8Wg

http://bevoluntaryist.com/ BeVoluntaryist

Yeah, I didn’t get that either, and why 10k XRP and 0 for everyone else, so nobody but Bitcointalk posters (as I have been reading for a while) can get XRP to play with?

rhzPa2Tu64GHK1V8MmqeE9ikCtNFmSh7Tc

Mickey

Can someone please be kind enough to send me 300 XRP? I would love to get started with ripple, thank you!

Hello any one who would be kind enough to give me 300 ripples to get me started would be ever so grateful of you. Thank you.

smc21

I anyone could be so kind as to start off my ripple account please with 300 XRP I’d be most grateful! rKoC8w5eXod6hAaWmCe2vATWGctu7h4ThD

http://www.facebook.com/tony.maroney.9 Tony Maroney

Hi,

Can anyone send me 300 to get started please??

rHaXnG8JL2zMsE5VmHD59jhAJ1zdTTEPYT

thanks alot

focusnie

Hi,can you send me 200 to get started please??

r3JNJUMDM1MpbsmUzrUDFG4SJC3M59HkmF
thank you very much!

Arne Norman

Need You help – tree hundred to the start – can You make it for me? Thanks a
LOT!!
rDsFpVw5pyagtpvvrbEFCMAMdaRmtSGtoT

BitRob73

If someone want to help me to start with ripple, here is my address: rJRDp65RmJe8Aa9swbRGvKDrNbchZYBPJe

Thanks in advance

JFMagellan

help please))

rwTbLv8rNPrQ7ynwcwDDavmQZuomP1JoHw

i won 2 start, help me)

liuqi

rLKLqjzGjcwBpZ9D7XdSihUFFfffnQo5Xz very thanks，and best wishes to you

971365671

Can anyone send me 300 to get started please??

rNAAy9xnjuU6McAjVFtMyFbDNKzTXQ9wbV

thanks

Amigaswapper

rfyTgJhy8QdSsmhJFZr9e6N87sdpcoNYUm

Could someone please send me a hundred ripples?

mavromixalakis

Hi,

Can someone please send me 300 to get started please?

rUgUm2nnku8BfNo3Qay7SauTGvqqMtFtWw

Kevin

Hello,
as you know, you need an initial deposit to activate your Ripple Wallet. If you
have not gotten any giveaways and you are trying to activate your card, here is
a simple way. The only premise is that you have your wallet and ripple address.

Note
that I just started this business right away, so you win a activation, and I
win a reputation. Win-win!!

Remember
that the more people aware of ripples, the more value it has.

If you
want to buy more ripples, please see my other options or contact via ebay
message.

Working4coins

Hi,

I’d like to try Ripple. Can someone send me some XRP to rNbcXWLWw5JSoFMkbACDF6CznWLDJzevq6

Thanks

quantumextreme

Trying to make some test…can anybody donate some ripples? Thankx

Address: rUvhZkdX5R411zQYWWTmb4DWZR4k15BE1V

http://www.facebook.com/richard.boase Richard Boase

…

Arne Norman

Need You help – tree hundred to the start – can You make it for me? Thanks a
LOT!!
rDsFpVw5pyagtpvvrbEFCMAMdaRmtSGtoT

http://www.matthewmarcus.com/ Matthew W. Marcus

But who is controlling the XRP currency system? The thing that makes Bitcoin so interesting, appealing and possible is that no government or single entity owns/operates the currency. In the case of Ripple, it seems like one person(s) is kicking back and owning it all. That just won’t fly if it is the case…

misterkel

There is a serious downside to the BC approach – someone can get control of enough of the verification system and essentially counterfeit BC by double spending coins. May have already happened.
If there is a single verifying authority, then it’s clear who pissed in the punch bowl – and it’s subject to audit if they want to maintain integrity.
Besides, The Federal Reserve owns the dollar machinery – and that currency did okay.

Tom

I just opened a wallet in Ripple only to find I need Ripple before I can get started. What is the best way to obtain XRP Ripple inexpensively?
Wallet: r4xWPYCPmdafpQ9erTrKo7BVbyEXsmdLW

Dukk

Hi,

Can anyone send me 300 to get started please??

rKsbbvt5FR4eiisrb3vaNMV1D9tiYbjKvM

thanks

Dicey

Ripple
coin is NOT decentralized as stated in this article, it is centralized,
controlled by one company and they make it clear that they will ‘monetize’
their ripple holdings when it reaches a value they deem sufficient, sufficient
to cash in and be rich that is. Ripple Coin (or Ripple Con as we should call it) was all pre-mined too. Ripple Coin is a scam plain and simple, it’s everything crytocurrencies are not supposed to be.

Juhani From Finland

I am a new user. Could someone to fund me to 300 in order to get beginning. Thanks.

ratJ2vPZfG1pJazC9KMHAuw7mceMAn9xFE

Michael

RIPPLE is backdoor funded by George Soros (A NWO neo-con control freak) who knows very well the Bitcoin and others are a great threat to him and all his banker buddies. They invented Ripple to try and minimize the Bitcoin threat with an attempt to pull Bitcoin people away from Bitcoin. It will fail hard core, and Bitcoin will win in the end.

misterkel

right – because all the projects by the elite fail and the common citizens always win.

glen parrish

I’m begging for some XRP… I joined the world community and hoping it’ll be used for good not evil lol.